Oregon Teen Allegedly Planned An Attack Bigger Than Columbine

A 17-year-old student in Albany, Ore., built several bombs and
had a detailed plan – including checklists and diagrams – as part
of a Columbine-style plot to attack West Albany High School, a
local prosecutor says.

No motive has yet been made public, but Benton County District
Attorney John Haroldson said authorities on Friday found six
kinds of explosives – including napalm bombs, pipe bombs,
drain-cleaner bombs, and Molotov cocktails – in "a secret
compartment that had been created in the floorboards" of the
teen's bedroom. The teen, Grant Acord, sought to make his attack
bigger than Columbine, Mr. Haroldson said.

The alleged plot is just the latest example of how the Columbine
massacre continues shape school safety 14 years later.

Not only does the plot suggest that would-be attackers continue
to draw inspiration from Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, who
killed 12 students and a teacher at Columbine High School in
Littleton, Colo., before committing suicide on April 20, 1999.
But it also points to how such plots have been repeatedly foiled.

Authorities say they received a tip. Albany police became
suspicious after they "received information that associated ...
Acord with manufacturing a destructive device with the intent of
detonating it at a school," Haroldson said, according
to a CNN report.

With students more alert for signs of potential attacks
post-Columbine, tips have been crucial to preventing more
Columbines.

In 2001, A suspicious note passed along by a friend led
police in Elmira, N.Y., to find a high-school senior in the
cafeteria with a pistol, 18 bombs, and a sawed-off shotgun,
according to media reports.

Three years later, a tip about an Internet chat in which a
student said he was planning to attack his school led to a stash
of found stolen weapons, an AK-47, and Nazi literature in the
student's house in Clinton Township, Mich., reports say.

Tips also led to the discovery of Columbine-style plots in
Tampa, Fla., in 2011, and in Utah last year.

In the Utah case, the suspect actually went so far as to visit
Columbine High School and interview the principal.

“To go as far as to interview the principal and physically go
there … sends a message that they were extremely committed to
doing something,” Kenneth Trump, president of National School
Safety and Security Services in Cleveland told the Monitor at the time.

In Oregon, Grant will be charged as an adult with aggravated
murder, Haroldson said. He will also face charges related to
bombmaking.

“This was a very methodical process,” said Haroldson, according
to a report in The Oregonian. “He took time to
even get to this point.”

The evidence gathered by police, which includes "diagrams,
checklists, a plan to use explosive devices, and firearms to
carry out a plan specifically modeled after the Columbine
shootings" shows "intent and plans to carry out a deadly assault
on a target-rich environment," he said.

Haroldson did not say when Grant planned to carry out the
attack, according to ABC, but added: "I can't say
enough about how lucky we are that there was an intervention.
When I look at the evidence in the case, I shudder to think of
what could have happened here."

Grant was arrested at his home Thursday.

Police say they have searched the school and found no devices,
though a Reuters report said they are following
up the initial search more thoroughly to make sure students can
return to school after the Memorial Day vacation.